Flow Assurance Practices

Petroleum Industry
• Upstream: Exploration and Production

• Midstream: Transportation (Field to Refinery)

• Downstream: Refining and Marketing

Upstream

• Three major oil/gas flow systems

1. Reservoir

2. Wellbore (Casing/Tubing)

3. Surface (Flowline/Treating)
(Surface/Platform/Topside/Ocean floor)
Pressure drop in flow systems
Reservoirs

• Accumulation of hydrocarbons
- Oil and/or Gas plus initial saturated water
- Contaminants
- Free water
• Trapped underground within porous and permeable rock
Reservoir
• Trap rock retains the hydrocarbons in the reservoir rock. Without a seal rock,
hydrocarbons cannot be retained. The hydrocarbons will flow until they reach
another reservoir with a trap and seal rock.
• Seal rock is impermeable and made up of fine grains or salt such as shale,
anhydrite and gypsum. Its impermeability prevents the migration of
hydrocarbons and retains the hydrocarbon in a reservoir under a trap.
• Reservoirs exist anywhere from the land surface to 30,000 ft (9,000 m) below
the surface and are in a variety of shapes, sizes and ages. The hydrocarbons
will stay in the reservoir until they are discovered, extracted and processed into
oil and gas products
Reservoir rock

• Rock – Water – Reservoir fluids

• Gas in the reservoir is saturated with water vapor at reservoir condition
• For an oil reservoir to form, porous rock needs to be covered by a non-porous
layer such as salt, shale, chalk or mud rock that does not allow hydrocarbons to
leak from the structure.

Gas
Sand
Grain
Water
Reservoir fluids

• Hydrocarbons: Oil and Gas

• Water
- Irreducible
- Mobile

• Contaminants
Reservoir fluids

• Hydrocarbon vapour – Natural gas (Gas)

• Hydrocarbon liquid
- Oil (If liquid when in reservoir)
- Condensate (If vapour when in reservoir)

• Fluid
- Liquid or Vapor
oil / condensate / water
Petroleum fluids

• Large number of petroleum compounds mixed together

• Individual molecules
- “Hydro” or hydrogen
- “Carbon” or carbon

• Classification:
- Open chain vs Cyclic chain (Ring)
- Single or Multiple carbon bonding
: Single = saturated
: Multiple = unsaturated
 Petroleum fluids

LNG
Note:
Paraffin wax= 20<n<40 LPG

Paraffin
= Alkane
(CnH2n+2)

Naphthene C5H10
= Cycloalkane CH3C5H10
C6H12

Sweet corrosion

Sour corrosion
Hydrocarbon molecules

• More than C3, getting closer to the properties of liquid hydrocarbon

Open chains – Single bonds
Paraffin build-up in flowline
Ring chain – Single bonds
Asphaltenes
Open chain – Double bond

• Very small fraction in the reservoir

Ring chain – Double bonds

• Aromatic components: Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene (BTEX)

• Hazardous!! → must track the composition in every stream
Hydrocarbon classification
Four H-C Series: C6
Natural Gas

• Mixture of mainly smaller sized hydrocarbons

- Light hydrocarbons C1 – C4
- Intermediates C5 – C9

• Described by

1. Chemical composition
(C1, C2, C3, C4, ………….., C7+)

2. Gas specific gravity

Gas sample – chemical composition
Gas sample – chemical composition
Gas composition – Fractional analysis
Natural Gas

• Mixture of mainly smaller sized hydrocarbons

- Light hydrocarbons C1 – C4
- Intermediates C5 – C9

• Described by

1. Chemical composition
(C1, C2, C3, C4, ………….., C7+)

2. Gas specific gravity: SGg

Gas specific gravity
Natural Gas Compositions

Pluto NWS Gorgon Jansz Browse Ichthys

Component
(mol %) (mol %) (vol. %) (vol. %) (mol %) (mol %)

N2 8.1 0.8 2.0 2.3 0.5 0.4

CO2 1.9 3.0 14.0 0.3 9.8 8.5

CH4 83.0 85.3 76.7 91.5 79.3 70.0

C2H6 3.9 5.8 3.2 3.8 5.6 10.3

C3H8 1.4 2.2 0.9 1.1 2.1 4.2

C4H10 0.7 1.0 0.3 0.4 0.9 1.9

C5+ 1.4 1.9 0.1 0.6 1.8 4.4

 Crude oil
• Mixture of large range of H-C (includes “Heavies”)

• Described by
1. Liquid specific gravity

2. oAPI (American Petroleum Institute: First standards issued in 1924)

Single component hydrocarbon at standard
conditions

• C1 – C4: Vapor phase

• C6 – C17: Liquid phase

• C18 – + : Solid phase (paraffin, asphaltene)

Typical oil field composition
Different crude oil sample
Different crude oil samples
Phase behavior – Single component
Changes in Petroleum Phases
Vapor pressure for light hydrocarbons
Physical properties of hydrocarbons
Hydrostatic head: Fresh water

• 8.3372 lbm/gal ( = ppg, pound per gallon)

= 8.3372 lb / 0.13368 ft3 = 62.37 lb/ft3

• Transform the density to pressure

psi = pounds per square inch

62.37 lb / (12 inch * 12 inch) = 0.433 psi

→ 1 foot depth of fresh water exerts 0.433 psi pressure
: Hydrostatic head
Q. How much pressure does a 10 foot column of liquid C10 exert at its
base?

A. P = 0.433 * SGL * H
Fluid viscosity

• Symbol: μ
- Internal resistance of a fluid to flow against itself
- Usually measured in centipoise

• Absolute viscosity: μ
- Greek letter mu
- Units: Centipoise

• Kinematic viscosity: ν
- Greek letter nu
- Units: Centistrokes
Absolute (μ) and Kinematic (ν) viscosity
Oil viscosity vs. Temperature
Oil viscosity vs. Temperature

• Dominant effect by temperature

Effect of solution gas on oil viscosity

• Gas dissolution reduces viscosity

Phase diagram: Two components
Phase behavior
Phase behavior
Petroleum fluid classification
Reservoir composition vs. GOR
Reservoir classification
Critical pressure and critical temperature
Exercise 1.

• Calculate Ppc and Tpc for a gas mixture composed of

Tc, Pc from SG
Compressibility Factor: Z
Compressibility Factor: Z
Exercise 2.